AMORI CUM PRUDENTIA
NON CONVENIT.

LOVE AND PRUDENCE NEVER AGREE

Forte pharetratus pharetratum Phoebus amorem
Riserat: ac arcus tela Cupidinei.
Ostentánsque suas, victo Pythone, sagittas:
Spreverat imbellis, quae gerit arma, puer.
Vindictam indignatus Amor molitur. & auri
Cuspide cor Phoebi figit amorifica.
Contra, odii Daphne refugi dat vulnus amatae
Telo, cui hebeti plumbea cuspis erat.

Phoebus the archer laughed at the archer Love and the bolts of Cupid’s bow. Showing his arrows fresh from the conquest of Python, he insulted the arms worn by the unwarlike boy. Amor, angry, plots revenge, and transfixes the heart of Phoebus with a golden arrow that inspires love; but he gives a wound to beloved Daphne with a blunt bolt of hatred and rejection whose tip was of lead.

Ille amat, haec odit. fugit haec: sectatur at ille
Dúmque fugit: Laurus facta repentè stetit.
Sic amat, & frustra. nec Apollo potitus amore est.
Ultus Apollinis est, sic Amor opprobrium.
Haecine doctorum sors est inimica virorum,
Ut iuvenes quamvis non redamentur ament?
Exososque habeat prudentes stulta iuventus
His ne iungatur stipes ut esse velit.

He loves, she hates; she flees, but he pursues her; she halts suddenly in mid-flight, having become a laurel. So he loves, and loves in vain; nor does Apollo attain his desire. So Amor has revenge for Apollo’s slight. Is this the fate cruel to learned men, that they should love youths and not be loved in return, and stupid youth hate the wise, turning rather into stumps than joining with them in love?